other than you

RapGenius being racist and worthless is deeper than it might seem at first glance, especially to people from the techcrunch and private equity cosmos that may be drawn in by the recent headlines and are probably scratching their heads. Why are leading rap bloggers being so critical of a site that is trumpeting rap and the significance of rap lyrics? Consider that, basically, not so smart RapGenius is trying to undercut a community that is (and has been for a long time) heavily invested as cultural interpreters but they’re doing it in a way that is removed, ie fake, and also in a way that most rap bloggers think is unjustified, ie they’re getting paid for it! Let’s face it, they’re bad at it and they’re condescending. RapGenius, maybe, would have saved itself a lot of grief and have been taken more seriously if they appropriately engaged the rap community that already exists online. Or maybe if they knew what they were talking about? If they didn’t steal content? Or maybe they simply should have changed their name to something that is more indicative of what they actually did and are actually doing, like maybe Get $ilicon Valley Money Genius dot com. What I will give them is that, although they are corny and removed, so are many rap fans and therefore they end up being functionally representative of a certain community. But that don’t make shit smell any better, does it? And if you missed it, I originally had this post titled with this comment that pretty much sums up what has been happening for the past few hours, “A ONE EYED BLACK MAN WHO WORKS AT KMART IS SINGLE-HANDLY DISMANTLING YOUR COMPANY AND FUTURE YOU RACIST HACK”.